The Sustainable Development

Goals (SDGs)—adopted by the

United Nations (UN) in Septem-

ber 2015—aim to end poverty,

protect the planet, and ensure

prosperity for everyone. To

make this happen, the UN en-

courages everyone to do their

part—not only governments, the

private sector, and civil society

but also us as individuals.

For us, the UN set up a website

called The Lazy Person's Guide

to Saving the World. It has tips

on what we can do from our

couches and in our neighbor-

hoods to contribute to these

solutions.

While the recommendations are

really worth pursuing, I do not

like being categorized as a lazy

person. So it made me think:

How can the International Car-

tographic Association (ICA)

contribute to meeting the SDGs

by 2030?

Let's first look at what the 17

SDGs encompass. Each goal—

from ending hunger and attaining

gender equality to ensuring

peace and justice and building

strong institutions—has several

targets. If the more than 160

targets are reached, humanity

and our planet will experience

economic, social, and environ-

mental improvements.

The targets are judged based on

more than 300 indicators. Take

Goal 4, which seeks to ensure

quality education for everyone

and encourage lifelong learning.

This goal includes 10 targets, one

of which is to ensure that all

children receive free and good

primary and secondary educa-

tions. The success of this target

is measured by two indicators:

the percentage of children who

are proficient in reading and

mathematics and the rate of

students who complete primary

and secondary schools.

So, how can we cartographers

be relevant in helping society

reach these targets? Mapping the

indicators seems like a good first

step. We all know that well-

crafted maps can effectively ex-

hibit known facts in a visual way.

What's more, online mapping

technology can disseminate these

facts globally to increase aware-

ness of current states of affairs.

And then there are the interac-

tive map dashboards—connected

to geographic databases at multi-

ple scales and with space-time

analytical functions—that allow

decision-makers at various levels

to monitor and compare indica-

tors for policy development and

action at different geographic

scales.

The International Cartographic

Association's posters about the

Sustainable Development Goals

teach the principles of cartog-

raphy while educating viewers

about the goals.

That said, at ICA, we decided to

do things a little differently. ICA's

aim is to promote the discipline

of cartography throughout the

world. Not least because 2016 is

International Map Year, we de-

cided that ICA should demon-

strate how diverse maps and

cartography really are and how

they can convey all sorts of met-

rics, insight, and relationships

with regard to the SDGs.

Thus, we decided to create an

exhibition of cartographic post-

ers about the SDGs. The posters

are on the ICA website, where

anyone can access and use them

to enrich their own map displays,

especially those related to Inter-

national Map Year. Additionally,

in the spirit of Goal 4, the ICA's

exhibition allows us to educate

people on the importance of the

SDGs while also informing them

(Continued on page 2)

Cartography Contributes to Meeting

Sustainable Development Goals

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Feature

Article

1-2

Conference

Information

3-4

Conference

Schedule

5-6

SPPC

Update

7

I M A G I N P R E S E N T S : IMAGINews S P R I N G 2 0 1 7

S P E C I A L

P O I N T S O F

I N T E R E S T :

It’s not too late

to register!

The 2017

IMAGIN Annual

Conference is

being held June

4-6, 2017 at the

Hagerty Center

and Park Place

Hotel in

Traverse City,

MI

Don’t Forget to

pre-register for

all the great

social activities

happening during

the conference!

www.imagin.org

P A G E 2

Cartography Contributes to Meeting Sustainable Development Goals how certain map projections

can be good or bad depending

on how the mapmaker wants

to display all the earth's land.

The ending poverty poster,

made by the Commission on

T o p o g r a p h i c M a p p i n g ,

encapsulates how to use topo-

graphic maps to better under-

stand what causes poverty.

Other posters acquaint

viewers with open-source

technologies, the relevance of

selecting the correct level of

detail for administrative units,

and the effects of using color

in map design. Taken together,

all the posters tell a story of

cartographic diversity, of

mapping options, and of

multiple map perspectives.

Maps that matter—and are

well designed—are engaging,

instantly understandable, and

relevant to society. They

should raise interest, which is

exactly what the f irst

exhibition of these posters did

when it was displayed at UN

headquarters in New York

during the Sixth Session of the

UN Committee of Experts on

Global Geospatial Information

Management (UN-GGIM) in

August 2016.

Does this mean that ICA has

contr ibuted enough to

achieving the SDGs? Does this

poster exhibition mean we can

stop? No. ICA is now planning

to create an atlas of good

practices for mapping the

SDGs.

Let's make the world a better

place with maps.

Reprinted from the Fall 2016

Esri ArcNews

~ About the Author

Menno-Jan Kraak is professor of

geovisual analytics and cartography

at the University of Twente in the

Netherlands, where he has been

teaching since 1996. He has a

degree in cartography from the

Faculty of Geographical Sciences at

Utrecht University and received his

PhD in cartography from Delft

University of Technology. Kraak

has written extensively on cartog-

raphy and GIS. His book

Cartography: Visualization of

Spatial Data, written with Ferjan

Ormeling, has been translated into

five languages. He also wrote

Mapping Time: Illustrated by

Minard's Map of Napoleon's

Russian Campaign of 1812,

published by Esri Press in 2014.

Kraak is a member of the editorial

boards of several cartography

journals, including the International

Journal of Cartography. He current-

ly serves as president of the Inter-

national Cartographic Association.

Read other Esri ArcNews articles in

"The Relevance of Cartography"

series.

If you are interested in submitting an

article for a future issue of the IMAGIN-

ews please contact the IMAGIN

Communications Team via email at

communication@imagin.org.

of how powerful maps can be.

ICA's commissions, which

address a wide range of topics

that cover nearly the entire

discipline of cartography, each

adopted one of the goals. As a

starting point, the commissions

selected a target of their chosen

SDG, along with its indicators.

Then e a ch commi s s ion

expressed its topic cartograph-

ically, through the lens of that

commission's objectives. For

example, the poster for protect-

ing life on land, made by the

C o m m i s s i o n o n M a p

Projections, tells the story of

I M A G I N E W S

Below: The International

Cartographic Association's

posters about the

Sustainable Development

Goals teach the principles of

cartography while educating

viewers about the goals.

IMAGIN’s 2017 Annual Conference

P A G E 3 S P R I N G 2 0 1 7

Come join us at the 2017 26th

IMAGIN Annual Conference at our

new venue in downtown Traverse

City. This new location offers

opportunities for attendees to

explore the heart of Traverse City

and all it has to offer – entertain-

ment, shopping, beaches, dining,

nightlife and just an overall great

“Up-North” experience. The Park

Place Hotel is the conference hotel

of choice and is where we will call

home in the evenings. This historic

hotel offers a great downtown

location near to everything that is

cool in Traverse City. It boasts the

best views of the City and West

Grand Traverse Bay from many of

the rooms and ultimately from the

“Top of the Park” where many of

our social functions will reside (you

really do have to see the views!).

Our actual conference venue this

year will be located at the stunning

Hagerty Center (Great Lakes

Maritime Academy). Seated on the

shores of West Grand Traverse

Bay, the Hagerty Center offers

breath-taking views and is separate

from the conference hotel and is an

enjoyable-short walk from the Park

Place Hotel.

This year’s conference features

over 36 education sessions and

workshops covering a myriad of

interesting and engaging topics as

well as the popular Esri Hands-On

Learning Lab. On Sunday before

the conference begins, make sure

to join our social outing for a

chartered trip up the very scenic

M-22 route into the Leelanau

Peninsula where you have the

choice of visiting the famed

Ciccone Vineyard and Winery or

the popular Hop Lot Brewing

Company. The “3-hour tour” (yes,

like Gilligan’s Island) will end up at

The Filling Station off of Boardman

Lake where we will mingle rail-side

at the old train depot and enjoy

some wood-fired pizza and micro-

brews. Finish the evening out

downtown and/or at the Top of

the Park and prepare yourself for the great

conference ahead.

This year IMAGIN has lined up some great keynote

speakers to kick off our daily sessions. Opening the

conference on Monday morning, the Michigan State

Police (MSP) and Emergency Management and

Homeland Security Division (EMHS) will be present-

ing on the use of UAV’s, aerial sensors, and cutting

edge geospatial technologies in the flight against

crime. Sgt. Matt Rogers leads the MSP Unmanned

Aerial System (UAS) program and has logged over

200 law enforcement support missions since 2015.

Walter Chomentowski supports the MSP Aviation

Unit to improve situational awareness during

emergencies by using the manned and unmanned

systems and the data collected by the sensor

From Left to right: Sgt. Matt Rogers,

Walter Chomentowski, & Nikkia Anderson

Gold Sponsors: Silver Sponsors: Conference/Event Sponsors:

IMAGIN’s 2017 Annual Conference Sponsors

P A G E 4

I M A G I N E W S

IMAGIN’s 2017 Annual Conference

by showing up to participate

while at the same time enjoy-

ing what downtown Traverse

City has to offer. On the flop,

join us again at the Top of the

Park to reveal your hand and

enjoy the evening views while

networking with your peers.

Come join us in Traverse City

to network with your peers

and exhibitors/sponsors, enjoy

our social events, silent

auction and great educational

opportunities. For more

details on our conference

schedule see pages 5 and 6 of

this Newsletter. Please see

the IMAGIN web page at

www.imagin.org to view all the

conference details, to register

for the conference, or learn

how you can become more

involved at the IMAGIN

Conference. See you in June!

systems. Nikkia Anderson

oversees the spatial data and

processing of the UAS imagery

that is collected. Together,

the presenters will share their

experiences and uses of UAS

and manned aerial data collec-

tion systems in the continual

effort to combat crime.

Start out Tuesday morning

with a cup of coffee and hear

Chris Treter, co-founder of

On The Ground, an organiza-

tion that supports sustainable

community development in

farming regions across the

world, and director of Higher

Grounds Trading Company

based out of Traverse City.

Chris will be our travel guide

routing us around the world

sharing his stories of explora-

tion of sustainable coffee farm-

ing based on a human-centric

approach.

On Monday evening, make

sure to participate in the first

ever IMAGIN Poker Run! You

don’t have to have a poker

face to be a winner at this

event, simply force your hand

IMAGIN and

InfoGeographics, Inc.

are excited to launch

the IMAGIN 2017

App. The goal with

this app is to bring

added value to both

conference planners

and attendees by

providing all

conference infor-

mation, local

information and a

way to communicate

with all attendees

before, during, and

after the event.

Download the app

today using the QR

code below

Chris Tretor with Coffee Farmer

P A G E 5 S P R I N G 2 0 1 7

Sunday, June 4th, 2017 2:00 to 3:30 PM Early Attendee Conference Registration Park Place Hotel Lobby

Afternoon/Evening Vendor Set Up Hagerty Center

4:00 PM Departure for Wine/Beer Tour and dinner Park Place Hotel

6:00 PM Dinner Meet Up The Filling Station Microbrewery

8:30 PM to Midnight IMAGIN Hospitality Event Park Place Hotel—Top of the Park

Monday, June 5th, 2017 7:15 AM to 8:30 AM Busses run from Park Place Hotel to Hagerty Center

7:00 AM Registration Opens Hagerty Center—Rotary Hall

7:30 AM Breakfast Hagerty Center—Ballrooms A-C

8:30 AM Welcome

Hagerty Center—Ballrooms A-C Keynote Speaker: Michigan State Police

9:45 AM Break

10:00 AM Technical Session 1

11:00 AM Transition

11:15 AM Technical Session 2

12:15 PM Lunch Hagerty Center—Ballrooms A-C

1:30 PM Transition

1:45 PM Technical Session 3

2:45 PM Transition

3:00 PM Technical Session 4

4:00 PM Transition

4:15 PM Technical Session 5

5:00 PM Transition

5:15 PM Poker Run Launch/Dinner on Own Hagerty Center—Ballrooms A-C

5:30 PM Busses to Park Place Hotel

8:30 PM to Midnight Poker Run Finale/Social Networking Park Place Hotel—Top of the Park

Tuesday, June 6th, 2017 7:15 AM to 8:30 AM Busses run from Park Place Hotel to Hagerty Center

7:30 AM Registration Hagerty Center—Rotary Hall

7:30 AM Breakfast Hagerty Center—Ballrooms A-C

8:30 AM Welcome

Hagerty Center—Ballrooms A-C Keynote Speaker: Chris Treter, Higher Grounds

9:45 AM Break

10:00 AM Technical Sessions 1

11:00 AM Transition

11:15 AM Technical Sessions 2

12:15 PM Transition

12:30 PM IMAGIN Awards Luncheon

Hagerty Center—Ballrooms A-C IMAGIN Annual Membership Meeting

2:00 PM Technical Session 3

2:45 PM Transition 3:00 PM Technical Session 4 4:00 PM IMAGIN UAV Giveaway Hagerty Center—Ballrooms A-C

4:05 PM Conference Ends

P A G E 6

I M A G I N E W S

Technical Sessions

Monday, June 5th, 2017

10

:00

-11

:00

John Nelson - Artsy Science of Cartography

Ben Fraser - Chicago's Urban Forest: Applying Supervised and Unsupervised Classifcation Methods

Andrew Michalowski, et al - Leveraging GIS & Cityworks for Asset Management and Inter-governmental Contract Purpos-es

Mark Holmes - Next Generation of the Michigan Geographic Framework

11

:15

-12

:00

Jeff Nemecek - Integrating High Resolution Oblique Imagery into your GIS

Fadi Alhomaidat - Analyzing Grand Rapids' Pedestrian Crash Data Spatially Queen Umeana - Wetland Res-toration Assessment in Michi-gan

Scott Menhart & Chad Collins - Leveraging GIS at Traverse City Light & Power

Charley Hickman - USGS Update on National Map, 3DEP, US Topo, etc.

1:4

5-2

:45

Trevor Hobbs - Using UAV-derived imagery in combination with existing LiDAR to map plot-level forest characteristics in Michigan

Emily Selph - Charlevoix County Leverages Mango for Web Map-ping Services

Jonathon Gartha & Keri Blough - Finding & Eliminating Cross Connections

Esri - Real-time Snow Manage-ment Support with ArcGIS

3:0

0-3

:45

Jeremy Dancer - UAV Technolo-gy in Surveying, Mapping, and GIS Applications

Matt McCormick - Web Map-ping & MSP

Kathleen Stack - Transitioning from Miss Dig Grids

Michael Boyd - Designing & Building Custom Workflows

4:1

5-5

:00

Jason Heywood - Mapping with Drones: Key Considerations and Factors to Achieve Desired Ac-curacy

William Welsh, et al - GIS Appli-cations for Analysis and Support of Local- and County-Level Tour-ism-Related Economic Develop-ment: Lessons from the Washtenaw County's Communi-ty Tourism Action Plan (CTAP) Program

Bryan Debus & John Nelson - Effective Cartography & Design

Andrew Brenner - What is Ele-Hydro and why you want it

Tuesday, June 6th, 2017

10

:00

-11

:00

Stacy Leroy Daniels, et al - The Comedy of Crystal Lake: Geo-morphic Analysis & 3D Model-ling of an Historical Event Using LiDAR Data

Michelle Lazar - Grand River Floodwalls - Historic Easements and Asset Management

Max George - Really? A Survey-ors Plea for Help

Esri - Opening Your Data to the Public with ArcGIS

11

:15

-12

:00

Alec Pestov & Bernie Schmidt - The Future of GIS - Holographic Technology

Ryan Miller & April Kibby - GIS Based Work Orders: A Practical & Intuitive Approach

Yassir Elrayah - Traffic Accident Locations Around Connected Vehicle Infrastructure

Tyler Bird - Leveraging Open Data & Location Intelligence for Better Governance Chade Saghir & Chad Misiuk - SEMCOG's Transporation Inter-active Maps and Open Data Portal

2:0

0-2

:45

Janice Lerg & Brian McElroy - SAW Stormwater Asset Man-agement

Randy Raymond, et al - Trans-forming Education with ArcGIS Platform, GeoCollaborators & K-12 Citizen Science

Ariana Toth - ArcGIS Server Components: An Introduction to Server IT Esri - The 10.5 things you need

to know about What's New in ArcGIS Enterprise 3

:00

-3:4

5

Magdalena DiFranco - The Tale of Utility Mapping in Clinton Township

Diane O'Connell - GIS Courses and Programs in Higher Educa-tion (Panel Discussion)

Keith Rikli & Ariana Toth - GIS Action, LIVE!: Innovative Web GIS Applications using ArcGIS for Server

P A G E 7 S P R I N G 2 0 1 7

2017 Student Poster & Paper Competition Winners IMAGIN’s annual Student Poster and Paper Competition (SPPC) was

held on April 6th at Lansing Community College. The gathering

brought together students, instructors, and GIS professionals from

around the state for a day of presentations, discussion, and

networking. Eleven institutions of higher learning were represented

in the competition including: Aquinas College, Calvin College,

Eastern Michigan University, Ferris State University, Grand Valley

State University, Lansing Community College, Michigan State

University, Northern Michigan University, the University of Michigan-

Dearborn, and Western Michigan University. A total of eighteen

undergraduate posters were presented.

Poster winners included:

Justin Brown of UM-Dearborn, 1st place – best utilization of

remote sensing data - for his poster “Looking for Evidence of

Ancient Wet Environments on Mars,” (shown above)

Madeline Jazdzyk and Montana Kruske of LSU, 1st place (tie) –

best utilization of GIS - for their poster “Applying DRASTIC

Methods to the State of Michigan Assessing Groundwater

Vulnerability,” (shown top right)

Isaac Entz of GVSU, 1st place (tie) – best utilization of GIS - for

his poster “Analysis of Sinkhole Development in the Floridian

Aquifer System,” (shown bottom right)

and Ross DiFalco of MSU, 3rd place – best utilization of GIS -

for his poster “Agricultural Drainage Tile Density Compared to

Natural Soil Drainage.”

The first place winners received $300 each and the 3rd place winner

received $100.

To see all of the submissions and view the posters online go to

www.imagin.org/awards

In addition, three graduate students presented their research.

Ben Fraser of MSU presented his paper entitled “Chicago's

Urban Forest: Applying Supervised and Unsupervised Classifi-

cation Methods.”

Fadi Alhomaidat of WMU presented his paper “Analyzing

Grand Rapids' Pedestrian Crash Data Spatially”

Queen Umeana of Eastern Michigan University presented her

paper “Wetland Restoration in Michigan.”

The first place winner, Ben Fraser, received a $1,000 scholarship.

All three paper presenters will be sharing their work at the

IMAGIN Conference in June in Traverse City, Michigan.

A special thank you goes out to our 2017 judging panel:

Claudia Walters – University of Michigan, Dearborn

Mary Clinthorne – Aquinas College

Ashton Shortridge – Michigan State University

Michael Battaglia – Michigan Tech Research Institute

416 S. Cedar St. Suite C

Lansing, MI 48912

www.imagin.org

Phone: 517.338.3035 x709

Fax: 866.298.2115

E-mail: info@imagin.org

IMAGIN is a non-profit professional development

organization committed to providing opportunities

for its members to network with

professionals who are using, creating, or maintaining

spatial resources within Michigan. IMAGIN serves as

a crossroads for spatial information

users/developers at all levels of government,

business, and non-profit organizations by providing

its members partnership opportunities to

recognize, share, and create spatial data

resources for both traditional and new applications.

IMAGIN, Inc.

Improving Michigan’s Access to

Geographic Information Networks

416 S. Cedar St. Suite C

Lansing, MI 48912

Phone: 517.338.3035 x709

Fax: 866.298.2115

E-mail: info@imagin.org

Twitter: @IMAGIN_mich

IMAGIN, Inc.

Thomas VanBruggen, IMAGIN President & Coeditor

Sarah Merz, IMAGIN Vice President, Communications

Team Lead, and Coeditor

Lori Schultz, Coeditor

Maryellen Jansen, Coeditor

Brodey Hill, Coeditor

Andrew Giguere, Coeditor

IMAGINews publishes original, timely, and innovative articles and news items that advance knowledge regarding GIS, related technologies, and their use within Michigan. IMAGINews welcomes submissions from IMAGIN members and others. Please send article submissions in Microsoft Word format to communication@imagin.org . Contents © 2017 IMAGIN. All rights reserved. Opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are not necessarily those of IMAGIN, its officers, employees, or the editors and publisher of IMAGINews.

S P R I N G 2 0 1 7